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QURAN BURNINGS

Sweden recalls refugee status from Quran-burning activist

Salwan Momika, the Iraqi activist who burned copies of the Quran at a string of protests this summer, has had his refugee status recalled. But it remains uncertain whether he can be returned to his homeland.

Published: 27 October 2023 11:49 CEST
Sweden recalls refugee status from Quran-burning activist
The activist Salwan Momika carried out a protest with an Israeli flag on October 21st. Photo: Fredrik Persson/TT

Sweden’s Migration Agency has revoked Momika’s refugee status and recalled his residency permit, which had been due to run out in April 2024, after concluding that he had provided false information in his original application. 

“I’m not leaving Sweden. I’m going to live and die in Sweden,” Momika told SVT after the decision. “The Migration Agency has made a serious mistake. I suspect that there is a hidden political motive behind this decision and I am going to appeal.” 

But on Thursday, the Migration Court of Appeal rejected Momika’s appeal almost as soon as it was submitted. 

Momika, together with his accomplice Salwan Najem, carried out a series of anti-Islamic demonstrations in Sweden earlier this year, several of which have involved him burning copies of the Quran, the holy book of Islam. 

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In its decision, the Migration Agency recalled Momika’s residency permit and right to work in Sweden, revoked his refugee status, and ordered him to be deported, with a five-year ban on returning. 

Momika registered as an asylum seeker in Sweden in April 2021, and was later given residency for three years. 

“The reason [behind the decision] is that we have realised that he submitted inaccurate information about his need for protection when he applied for residency,” Jesper Tengroth, the press spokesperson for the Migration Agency, told SVT. “I cannot go into detail.” 

However, it is far from certain when, or even whether, Momika will be returned to Iraq, as the agency believes that he risks mistreatment if he returns. 

According to the broadcaster TV4, he has received a new temporary residency until April 2024 as the agency judges that it is not safe for him to return to Iraq.  

“What we have decided is that this person risks torture and inhumane treatment if he returns to his homeland,” Tengroth told the broadcaster. “For that reason have we decided that there is an obstacle to carrying out the deportation.”

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WORK PERMITS

Business leaders: Work permit threshold ‘has no place in Swedish labour model’

Sweden's main business group has attacked a proposal to exempt some jobs from a new minimum salary for work permits, saying it is "unacceptable" political interference in the labour model and risks seriously affecting national competitiveness.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:37 CEST
Updated: 26 April 2024 06:11 CEST
Business leaders: Work permit threshold 'has no place in Swedish labour model'

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise said in its response to the government’s consultation, submitted on Thursday afternoon, that it not only opposed the proposal to raise the minimum salary for a work permit to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor a month), but also opposed plans to exempt some professions from the higher threshold. 

“To place barriers in the way of talent recruitment by bringing in a highly political salary threshold in combination with labour market testing is going to worsen the conditions for Swedish enterprise in both the short and the long term, and risks leading to increased fraud and abuse,” the employer’s group said.   

The group, which represents businesses across most of Sweden’s industries, has been critical of the plans to further raise the salary threshold for work permits from the start, with the organisation’s deputy director general, Karin Johansson, telling The Local this week that more than half of those affected by the higher threshold would be skilled graduate recruits Swedish businesses sorely need.   

But the fact that it has not only rejected the higher salary threshold, but also the proposed system of exemptions, will nonetheless come as a blow to Sweden’s government, and particular the Moderate Party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which has long claimed to be the party of business. 

The confederation complained that the model proposed in the conclusions of the government inquiry published in February would give the government and political parties a powerful new role in setting salary conditions, undermining the country’s treasured system of collective bargaining. 

The proposal for the higher salary threshold, was, the confederation argued, “wrong in principle” and did “not belong in the Swedish labour market”. 

“That the state should decide on the minimum salary for certain foreign employees is an unacceptable interference in the Swedish collective bargaining model, where the parties [unions and employers] weigh up various needs and interested in negotiations,” it wrote. 

In addition, the confederation argued that the proposed system where the Sweden Public Employment Service and the Migration Agency draw up a list of exempted jobs, which would then be vetted by the government, signified the return of the old system of labour market testing which was abolished in 2008.

“The government agency-based labour market testing was scrapped because of it ineffectiveness, and because it was unreasonable that government agencies were given influence over company recruitment,” the confederation wrote. 

“The system meant long handling times, arbitrariness, uncertainty for employers and employees, as well as an indirect union veto,” it added. “Nothing suggests it will work better this time.” 

For a start, it said, the Public Employment Service’s list of professions was inexact and outdated, with only 179 professions listed, compared to 430 monitored by Statistics Sweden. This was particularly the case for new skilled roles within industries like battery manufacturing. 

“New professions or smaller professions are not caught up by the classification system, which among other things is going to make it harder to recruit in sectors which are important for the green industrial transition,” the confederation warned. 

Rather than implement the proposals outlined in the inquiry’s conclusions, it concluded, the government should instead begin work on a new national strategy for international recruitment. 

“Sweden instead needs a national strategy aimed at creating better conditions for Swedish businesses to be able to attract, recruit and retain international competence.”

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